


Everything's Not Lost

by cjmarlowe



Category: Eureka
Genre: M/M, bring stark back, science ftw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-23
Updated: 2010-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-12 20:02:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/128513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjmarlowe/pseuds/cjmarlowe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack Carter was not actually hapless with women.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything's Not Lost

Jack Carter was not actually hapless with women. All things considered, he'd have to say his track record was pretty successful, for a definition of 'successful' that ended with him being single. So he didn't know why he was having so much trouble getting Dr. Casey Marshall to give him the time of day. Or, well, give him anything _but_ the time of day, considering her area of expertise happened to be time.

"You'll want to stay behind the glass," she said when he showed up unannounced on a Wednesday afternoon after a successful nanobot roundup, "if you insist on staying around."

"If this is a bad time--" She looked at him and gave him that mysterious half-smile of hers, like she _knew_ something. "Right, right, 'there's no such thing as bad time'."

"You don't actually want to date me, Carter," she said, turning back to her experiment, and Jack hadn't gotten to the part of the conversation where he asked her out yet so either he was becoming predictable or she'd been successful with some of her time manipulation experiments and really did know things. "You just think you do."

"Everyone in this town always thinks they know better than me," he said, shaking his head as she joined him behind the safety glass. "So what's this supposed to do?"

"Nothing that we'd be able to see," she said, tapping the screen in front of her. "It's going to collect data about the past conditions in this room, which we'll then check against our records to verify its accuracy."

"So the _machine_ is going to travel back in time?"

"More like the data is going to travel forward," she said. "Look, it would take me about a month to explain it to you, and I'd like to get this done before dinner. If you don't mind?"

"Oh, by all means," said Jack. "Play with time all you like. Cause _that_ always ends well."

"We all play with time every day," she said, continuing to...well, he didn't know exactly, but he assumed she was entering data or setting parameters or doing something so that that experiment would go off without a hitch. "It's part of our very existence."

"But for most of us, it tends to go in one direction," he said. "Most of the time. Except when it repeats itself, but I don't really like it when it does that, so let's avoid that scenario entirely."

"I'd just as soon avoid that scenario myself," she said. "It would set me back months, and I'd have to redo my calculations from scratch."

"Not exactly what I was worried about," said Jack. "So if there's nothing to see, what's with the safety glass?"

"To keep _us_ from contaminating the data," she said, tapping the screen two more times and then taking a step back. "It's working now."

She was right. There really _was_ nothing to see. Until suddenly there was.

There was a flash and a thump and suddenly her screen was filling up with columns of data that scrolled and scrolled and scrolled in front of her. It was completely meaningless to him, except that he was pretty sure it meant something hadn't gone exactly as planned.

"That wasn't supposed to happen," she said, giving it all a cursory glance before tapping it away and hitting the sequence to open the door to the lab.

"I hear that _way_ too often," muttered Jack.

"It was only supposed to return data, not solid objects."

"I've never seen anything go this badly wrong without Fargo in the room before," he said. "Just when were you trying to bring back data from anyway?"

"The weeks surrounding Nathan Stark's disappearance, of course," she said. Stark's death, he wanted to correct her, but no words came. "Eventually we wanted to use the information to begin to figure out what happened."

Of course. They were in the _time lab_. Of course that's what they were doing. He didn't even know what to say to that.

The door finally opened with a click of the magnetic lock and Dr. Marshall rushed back in towards her machine, then towards whatever had thumped on the other side of it. Jack knew enough to stay put.

He couldn't continue to stay put once she spoke, though.

"Oh my God," she said, which was another thing Jack really hated to hear from scientists. "It's Dr. Stark."

:::

Everything was a bit of a blur after that. He had a few clear images, the moment he rushed in himself to see Stark's face, the look on Allison's when she arrived, the door of the room that they rushed him into under the strictest confidence. Jack had a feeling the only reason he had clearance himself was because he'd actually been there to witness the event, and they hadn't perfected memory erasers yet.

Actually, that was another project Jack really hoped they weren't pursuing anymore.

He didn't understand most of the jargon but he got the gist of it. According to all tests, all scans and all data, that really was Nathan Stark in that bed, and he really was healthy and whole. And unconscious, which was probably for the best for everyone till they got it all sorted out.

The one thing Jack seemed to be useful for was sitting by Stark's bed. They might've had him hooked up to the world's most advanced medical equipment, but everyone still felt better with an actual human being in the room with him, and Jack was the only one they didn't want playing with any of the equipment. Which was also the best for everyone.

People came in and out, and he fielded a couple of calls from Jo, but mostly Jack just sat there and watched Nathan Stark's face as he lay in bed and did nothing more complicated than breathe.

Stark slept for a long time.

"I've been running the data all afternoon," said Dr. Marshall. "That should never have happened."

"You'd be surprised how meaningless the word 'never' is around here."

"I think your presence is what caused the corruption," she said. "You were one of the people in the room with him that day. I hadn't factored that into any of my calculations."

"So, what, this is my fault? For _existing_?"

"I'm not sure I would say _fault_ ," she hedged, "but you _were_ present unexpectedly."

"I'm pretty sure that means 'fault'," said Jack, but frankly, if they wanted to use the word 'fault' for the fact that he inadvertently plucked Stark from whatever limbo he was in and pulled him into the present, well, he would let them. He would probably let them call it a few worse things too.

"How's he doing?" said Allison, hovering by the door. Jack would have told her to take a seat, but if she wanted to, she already would have.

"You're asking _me_?" said Jack, looking up at the monitors surrounding him. "Well, nothing's made any alarming noises, so I'm assuming that's a good thing."

"I know what his vitals are," she said, "but how's he _doing_?"

"He's sleeping," said Jack, because that was really the only answer he had to give. "Peacefully, I think. No twitching or flailing or screaming. That's about the extent of what I can offer you."

"Well, that's good," she said. He didn't think it was good exactly, but it was good enough. Dr. Marshall looked from Jack to Allison and slipped out the door, and Jack hoped her rejection hadn't been based on the assumption that there was something going on there. He felt like there'd been a dozen chances, and somehow none of them had ever taken.

"How are _you_ doing?"

She smiled awkwardly at him. "It's complicated," she said. "I'm going to have a lot to tell him when he wakes up."

"But all good things," he said. "All things he's going to want to hear."

"Not all," she said softly, and only then did she finally take a seat.

:::

Stark woke up some time well after dark, though Carter only knew that because he'd already talked to Zoe to let her know where he was, if not what he was doing, and so he had a vague idea of the time. Ironically, considering how many hours he'd put in at his bedside, he wasn't even there when it happened.

He returned from the cafeteria, and okay, a quick trip to the bathroom too, to find Stark propped up in bed and talking to the doctor. Allison was by his bedside and this was clearly a conversation Jack didn't want to interrupt. He didn't go anywhere, though, just stood outside with his surprisingly bad coffee and felt a little bad for watching, but not bad enough to leave.

Eventually Allison kissed Stark on the cheek and left the room, and didn't seem at all surprised to find Jack there.

"I take it the wedding's not back on," he said, and Allison gave him a tired smile.

"I'm just glad to have him back," she said. "We're both going to need some time. A lot's changed since he was gone."

"Does he...?" said Carter, like it was a complete question.

"It's like it just happened for him," she said. "Like no time's passed at all. It's going to be an adjustment."

"It always is around here," said Jack, and Allison just gave him an understanding look and kissed him on the cheek as well before hurrying away down the corridor.

He still didn't go back in the room right away. Jack had dealt with the fact that Stark was gone, and not just gone but truly and permanently gone, but now there he was back in his life again. He'd lost a lot of people in his line of work, and it was always hard, but Stark had been a harder adjustment that most. Stark had ripped something out of him that he hadn't found anything to replace.

He never really understood why.

Finally he pushed open the door and stepped into the room and stood at the foot of Stark's bed, looking him up and down and back up again. And he felt _it_.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," he muttered, but there it was, unmistakably, a stupid warm feeling in his belly when he looked at Stark and really saw that he was all right. And he suddenly understood everything that had been eluding him. Boy, sometimes he really deserved every comment made about his intelligence around this place.

"Disappointed I made it after all?" said Stark.

"Not exactly," said Carter, and vowed to himself that he would never mention that feeling to anyone. The vow lasted less than thirty seconds. "It's good to see you again."

"It's finally happened," said Stark. "You've cracked under the pressure. Or maybe someone finally gave the go-ahead to experiment on you."

"Actually, they've done that a few times," said Carter, "but that's not....never mind."

Stark was silent for a few moments, though he was still _looking_ , and Carter had always felt like that look said almost as much as speaking. Except right now it was like his look was speaking in Farsi.

"It's good to see you too," he said finally. "Even though I just saw you earlier today."

"It's been longer than you think," said Carter, but he wasn't speaking in a literal sense - well, he was, but not _only_ in a literal sense - and for once Stark didn't call him on stating the obvious.

"Yes, I can see that," he said. "But I mean it all the same."

"Oh," said Carter. When Stark once again didn't make a cutting comment about his intelligent response, he knew that something new was happening. He just wasn't sure what.

"Allison told me you've been sitting vigil."

"I wouldn't call it...okay, I was _sitting_ , but I was sort of ordered not to touch anything. Vigil implies I was waiting for you to...the other thing, from what I was actually waiting for."

"Articulate as always," said Stark. "It's nice to know some things haven't changed."

"And apparently you made it back with all of your best qualities intact," said Carter. "Wait, are you smiling?"

"Trick of the light," said Stark. "Latent muscle spasm."

"You're _smiling_ ," said Jack. "Maybe there _was_ brain damage."

"Brain damage would explain a lot," said Stark, "but probably not this."

"You really are happy to see me," said Jack. And maybe after the inevitably difficult conversation with Allison he would have been happy to see anyone. Or maybe it was exactly what it seemed to be.

:::

They kept Nathan for two days before unleashing him on the world again. After the initial burst of curiosity he didn't get all that much attention, which probably summed up everything anyone ever needed to know about what it was like to live in Eureka.

Jack met him for breakfast at Café Diem, or rather Jack met him for coffee at Café Diem and Stark ordered up enough food that a person would think he hadn't eaten in days.

"I lied to Allison," he said out of the blue, digging into a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, dry toast on the side. "And to you."

"About what?" said Jack.

"Time passed while I was gone," he said. "I don't know how much, and I don't know how to explain it, but I retained some kind of consciousness."

"Do you have a ballpark figure?" said Jack. "A day? A week?"

"More than that," he said. "It felt like more than that. I had a lot of time to think."

"Sounds like you had time to do nothing _but_ think," said Jack, but it just wasn't funny. It wasn't funny at all.

"A person can only recite the first five hundred and sixty digits of pi to himself so many times before it ceases to help him cling to rationality."

"You know five hundred and sixty digits of pi?"

"Doesn't everyone?" said Stark. "I'm not telling you this because I need to get it off my chest, or because I _enjoy_ admitting to you I don't know something--"

"Well, at least one of us enjoys it."

"--but because I want it to be clear to you that time passed. That I had _time to think_."

The 'about you', Jack figured, was implied.

"Oh," said Jack, and the more comfortable, the easier, thing to do right now would be to make a joke about it. But all things considered, after all the time he and Nathan had spent together while he was still under observation at GD, Jack knew exactly what Nathan was saying. "And heaven forbid you ever do anything without thinking it through first."

"Exactly," said Nathan, clearing his plate already and getting up from their table to order more, leaving Jack to watch.

He didn't remain alone for long, though Dr. Marshall did not so much join him at the table as hover there for a moment.

"I told you it wasn't me you wanted," she said, just a tad too smugly, really. Maybe Jack just liked smug.

"But how?" he said. "Just what kinds of other experiments do you do in that time lab, anyway?"

"Carter, _everyone_ knew," she said, then patted his hand and gave him a smile and headed to the counter to order herself a vinspresso.

Huh. Everyone but him, apparently, but even he caught on to these things eventually. And in this one thing at least, he figured he and Stark were on exactly the same page. The first one.

It was a good place to begin.


End file.
